Heavy-duty trucks require large capacity fuel tanks to hold a sufficient amount of fuel for hauling long distances. The large fuel tanks are often cylindrically shaped and are mountable to a portion of the truck, such as the truck frame rail. Many other components are also typically mated to the frame rail, such as air tanks, battery packs, etc. With new requirements for reducing vehicle emissions, additional equipment must be included on the frame rail to filter out certain materials from the vehicle exhaust. Thus, there is a need to either reduce the size of the components that have normally been mounted on the frame rail or otherwise package such components together to increase available frame rail space.
One solution is to use a rectangular-shaped fuel tank that is mateable with other components. However, cylindrically-shaped tanks are traditionally the dominant tank type in, among other countries, the United States. The cylindrically-shaped tanks, or “round” tanks, are considered to constitute an essential part of the overall appearance of the heavy-duty truck. Moreover, round tanks provide the advantage of having a minimal rest volume, i.e. the volume which cannot be suctioned from the tank by the fuel suction tube.
Thus, it is desired to provide a design for traditional truck components that minimizes the number of required components and maximizes available frame rail space.